Let's talk about glow. It's one of the most understood concepts we deal in. We have had responses such, "it doesn't glow all the time" or "it doesn't glow like the pictures on the website" to "wow this glows so much brighter than my (insert high end $5K+ watch, we don't want to name names out of respect) 

That's a pretty big difference of total dissatisfaction to extremely satisfied to the point where our glow is out performing $10K lume diving watches. I'm here to set the record straight on all things glow related that I can think of. 

Glow Types and Manufacturing

There are various types of glow. Some that is safe to wear and some that is not. Let's talk about the stuff that is not safe to wear. The stuff that is not safe to wear is radium and tritium. Tritum is sort of safe, but we'll explain. Tritium itself is not safe, but it's encased in a glass vial or tube. Often times it is used in watches, necklaces, sometimes in rings. Tritium emits a small amount of radioactivity. In watch format, or in other applications, the amount of radioactivity is so low that it is deemed safe. Tritium and Radium glow all the time. That means they don't need to be charged in the sun. The downside is they don't glow very bright. 

Another type of glow used in jewelry is a sulfur based glow. It is beautiful and glows very intensely. It is similar to swiss super luminova. The downside is it smells like rotten eggs and we do not use it. 

The final type of glow we are going to discuss is strontium aluminate. This is the most common glow type, but has some of the most varying results. Strontium Aluminate is used from everything from the stars in children's bedrooms to watch dials to necklaces to emergency side markers in public transit and more. The results vary wildly. For example, Swiss Super LumiNova is strontium aluminate based but is engineered for watch dials. It has more color options and has to be cast via a medium like epoxy. 

Strontium Aluminate is also the glow we use in our rings. Here's the deal, we use a lot more of it in our rings than is used in high end watches, emergency signs and the stars in kid's bedrooms.

Comparisons.

Let's start by comparing apples to apples. Green Glow. Green glow is the most common glow color, because it glows the best. So let's compare. Emergency glow lighting on trains and planes is some of the worst performing glow out there. It is made by using super small crystal sized glow that is painted onto stickers. It does not have thickness or depth. It looks smooth and even but it does not glow bright or long. It works great in short term emergency situations like evacutions, but it will not last long. The next product we want to talk about is the glow stars many people are familiar with. Those stars are plastic that has been cast with glow powder (microscopic glow crystals). Those stars look cool, but they don't glow that well either. They are not saturated with very much glow. Then we get to watch dials. Most watches are 10-20% glow powder to resin. Some more or less, but if you think of tick marks on a watch or dial markers on a watch are so so small so it is hard to get enough glow to have a super strong glow presence. It's better than the stars and better than emergency markers, but it could be more intense even yet. 

Next comparison is between all types of glow. Radium paint and Tritium Gas do not glow very well. I would consider the brightest tritium I've ever seen to being rather weak in glow intensity. In duration, Radium and Tritium glow constantly. There is no dimming effect after a charge. They're always glowing. That's cool. But they're radioactive and shouldn't worn directly against your skin which is why we don't use it in any of our rings. 

Strontium Aluminate charges up in the sunlight and glows in the dark. It is a photoluminescent glow. Flourescent glow is the type of glow that glows only when it is being hit with UV light. Photoluminescent glow stores the energy from sunlight and emits it after the source is gone. The brightest glowing strontium aluminate only lasts 10 hours. The first moments after a charge are the most intense and then it slowly fades over 10 hours. Most glow products only last a a few hours or less before completely faded. Ours will last up to 10 hours. Read the next section to learn why.

DURATION AND INTENSITY

Next up. Let's talk about our rings exclusively. Our rings glow significantly brighter than all the other products we have discussed. That is because our process of manufacturing is a way that allows us to put huge volumes or saturations of glow in our mediums. We are able to achieve up to a 1:1 medium to glow powder concentration. That's about 8-10 times as much glow as most other products. 

In each ring you get from us, it is essentially very close to the brightest possible glow achievable. Period. We use the biggest mircon size of glow crystal and the highest concentration we possibly can in each ring. 

Each color is different. Here is a comparison of colors from brightest to least bright with durations included. 

• Green is the brightest and lasts up to 10 hours.
• Aqua is the second and lasts up to 8 hours. 
• White is very bright too but only lasts about 1-2 hours. 
• Orange is very bright and only lasts about 45 minutes.
• Blue however is just under white and orange in brightness but lasts 6-8 hours. 
• Purple lasts up to 4-5 hours but is not super bright.
• Fire glow or red glows hot orange and only lasts about 30-45 minutes.
• Phantom glow is the most expensive glow we carry and is deep red in the dark but only lasts up to 30 minutes. It is very rare. 

Now let's talk about style. Some styles of rings are brighter than others too due to manufacturing processes. There are rings made with cast glow and rings made with infused glow. 

Cast glow rings are the brightest. The glow is cast independently in one of our manufacturing processes. The glow is cut, sized, bonded, shaped, sanded and polished to the ring. These rings are usually more expensive due to the added labor involved. 

Examples of Cast Glow Rings are the parallels carbon line of rings or the opal and glow inlaid rings. 

Infused rings are not as bright but are every bit as cool. Majority of the carbon fiber we use is carbon fiber that is vacuum infused with epoxy. That means it is vacuum bagged as dry carbon fiber, then epoxy is infused in the bag through the dry layers of epoxy to create a perfect sheet of void free carbon fiber. 

The method of making these rings involves layering glow and composite strategically dry before infusing the epoxy through. The result is a unique shaped stripe that illuminates. These rings are very durable, very strong, have a slightly lower price point and have a very unique appearance. The only downside is the glow isn't quite as intense as the cast ring method. 

Examples of infused carbon fiber rings are our Aurora Line of carbon fiber rings or the Radiance Line of Rings.